Fighting Evictions in Rogers Park

Sign the petition to help stop the eviction!

Carol Vialdores has lived in the same building in Rogers Park for 16 years.  She is the mother of 5, and her three youngest still live with her, all attending, as did their older siblings, the local community schools.  She is also helping to lead a tenant organizing campaign that is building off the momentum of a successful anti-eviction campaign for her friend and neighbor, Erica Bledsoe. 

Carol was accused by the management company Northpoint, subsidiary of housing conglomerate Aimco, of attempting to assault someone in management who was in her apartment.  Carol contends that only words were exchanged.  The father of her children was visiting and hopes to have the chance to testify that the allegation is false.  Interestingly, if there was an attempted assault, Northpoint did not call the police or file a criminal complaint.  Northpoint also contends (possibly hoping weaken his position as a witness) that the father of Carol's kids was living at the apartment, though he was not on the lease, though he had not lived with the family for a long time.

Northpoint has refused to accept rent and given notices to folks who've been the most aggressive about submitting work orders for things like rodents or lack of heat.  What is absolutely clear is that a number of people have been pressured into signing away rights and agreeing to make payments for repairs that may not have been theri responsiblilty to pay, at the threat of eviction or losing apartments for which they've long been on waiting lists.  What is all the more clear is that the privatization of public housing has only added to the ease (and zeal) with which families are being evicted.  Sadly, The Department of Housing and Urban Development's plan, strongly supported in Chicago, is to complete the privatization of all public housing.  What this also means, as an example, is that when Northpoint contract with HUD is up in 2010, they have the choice to not keep this as subsidized housing.  The existence of a tenant's organization means that HUD and management are required to negotiate with tenants before this can happen. 

What Carol and the tenants know--what we all know--is that the power to prevail on Northpoint or HUD or the courts or housing policy will come from the people organizing to defend their rights to housing in the context of strong, sustainable communities.

That is what Carol is fighting for, in addition to her own home, and the stability that comes from children being able to stay in the same school, surrounded by friends people they know.

Sign the petition,  join the campaign!

When Black homeowners fought back

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor looks at the battle of African American homeowners in the 1960s for the right to get a mortgage and secure their property.


IN THE spring of 1968, in Presentation Church on the West Side of Chicago, a Black woman named Ruth Wells became known as the "Rosa Parks of Lawndale."

In a hastily organized meeting by Jesuit seminarians, Wells stood up and told of how she and her husband were being financially crushed under the burden of trying to keep up with monthly contract payments to pay off their house.

In Chicago, as a result of racism and redlining, it was virtually impossible for African Americans to get a standard mortgage with affordable interest rates. Instead, Blacks were often forced to purchase their homes "on contract"--the way one would buy a refrigerator or television. Unlike mortgage holders, who build equity in their homes, contract buyers were considered tenants. If they missed a payment, they could be evicted.

The result was that when it came to home ownership, African Americans were either shut out or ripped off. A report on the availability of mortgage funds for African Americans in Chicago found that in 1963, on average, Black homeowners paid 73 percent more for housing than whites, even though their median annual income was one half of what it was for whites.
At the same time, by 1960, more than 800,000 African Americans called Chicago home, and the city had the highest per capita income among Blacks in the U.S. outside of Detroit.
The pull of homeownership was strong. The possibility of owning one's own home meant leaving the cramped and overcrowded conditions of the poorest neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago, where most Blacks had historically come when they first moved to the city.

We should have posted this a long time ago

I just got to thinking how great this interview was, and then wondered why the hell we hadn't posted it up here yet.  So here you go, an interview with Ashraf Cassiem of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign on KPFA's Against the Grain.

Against tha Grain - November 25, 2009 at 12:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

Discussion with Cafe Society

Join us for a special Café Society with Chicago Freedom School. How can families facing foreclosure and eviction defend themselves? How are youth in particular affected when families are forced to leave their homes, and in what ways can they fight back? Can activist campaigns opposing evictions make a difference? Discuss housing rights, how to fight evictions, and more during this discussion. Special guest Frank Edwards, a Rogers Park anti-eviction activist and ally to the Anti-Eviction Campaign, will kick-off this intimate, facilitated discussion.

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required and can be made online, by email at events@prairie.org, or by calling 312.422.5580.

Wednesday 3/24
4:30pm - 5:30pm

Chicago Freedom School

719 S State St Suite 3N

Chicago